Effectiveness of farmers’ County, Kenya call centre strategy in delivery of agricultural extension services; the case of Nakuru Farmers’ Call Centre, Nakuru

Abstract

Limited access to agricultural information is among the factors that contribute to low productivity and profitability in agricultural value chains in Nakuru County. To address this challenge, Nakuru County Government adopted Farmers Call Centre strategy by setting up Nakuru Farmers‟ Call Centre. The call centre is an Information Communication Technology based interactive and innovative strategy for delivering agricultural extension services. Despite the adoption of the strategy, farmers still complained about delays in responding to queries and requests, provision of low-quality services, lack of follow-ups, and low productivity. The unsatisfactory realization of the envisaged improvements could perhaps be due to the effectiveness of Nakuru Farmers‟ Call Centre in the delivery of extension services. This study investigated the effectiveness of Farmers Call Center strategy in the delivery of agricultural extension services in Nakuru. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target populations were all the 3,473 farmers who had interacted with the NFCC and four agricultural extension experts from Nakuru Farmers‟ Call Centre. The accessible population was the four experts and 1993 farmers from Njoro, Subukia, Molo, and Rongai Sub-Counties farmers who had interacted with the center. Purposive sampling was used to select the four experts who were involved in the study while 110 farmers who participated in the study were chosen using proportionate and simple random sampling techniques. A farmers' questionnaire and call center experts' interview guide were used to collect data. The face and content validity of the two instruments were checked by experts from the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension. Reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using the Cronbach Alpha method. It yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.879. Data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Frequencies and percentages were used to summarise and describe qualitative data while means and standard deviations generated using a 5 points rating scale were used to determine effectiveness. The results showed that effectiveness of communication media used in the delivery of extension services was rated at M = 3.24 (SD = 0.90), the ability of Nakuru Call Center to link farmers with stakeholders was at M = 3.40 (SD = 0.50) while quality was at M= 3.81 (SD = 0.26). It was concluded that the center‟s communication media was effective in the delivery of extension services. The center was also effective in linking farmers to stakeholders and provided them with quality extensions service. It is expected that the findings of the study would inform Nakuru Call Center, farmers, and extension agents on the most effective communication media in the delivery of agricultural extension services. The findings could also be used by the County Government when reviewing policies that aim at strengthening provision of extension services in terms of facilities, funding and personnel.